Teaching Modern Hinduism by Jason D

Teaching About Asian Religions Teaching Modern Hinduism By Jason D. Fuller

HINDUISM—ANCIENTORMODERN? Aryan culture, some elements of later Hinduism can arguably be Textbooks dealing with Asian religions tend to make short work of Mod- traced back to this period. Potential connections between the reli- ern Hinduism. In doing so, they reflect the demands of an academic mar- gion of the Indus Valley peoples and later Hinduism include the ex- ket that places a premium on conciseness. When a teacher is in the istence of a Hindu-like “bathing pool” unearthed within the citadel awkward position of having to introduce students to the dizzying array of Mohenjo-Daro along with sacrificial fire altars and clear indica- of Hindu traditions in a brief amount of time, something has to give. tions of mother goddess worship. Pictographic seals from the Indus What usually gives in discussions of Hinduism is the modern period. Valley may depict an ithyphallic figure seated in yogic posture, sur- Students are therefore denied a complete picture of the tradition. rounded by iconography associated with the later Hindu god Śiva. The neglect of the modern period is understandable but regret- The Early Vedic Period (1500–800 BCE). During this period, the no- table. Even those of us whose scholarly work focuses on the modern pe- madic culture of the Indo-Aryans came to dominate northern India riod tend to avoid confronting it squarely in our comparative Asian along the Gangetic plain. The sacrificial religion of the yajñā (fire religions courses. The historiographical and theoretical issues seem too sacrifice) proliferated as the Vedas were composed. A tripartite di- complex to introduce in a succinct way. Anyone who has taught intro- vision of society into priests, warriors, and commoners reflected ductory comparative courses dealing with Hinduism knows that suffi- the cosmic order of heaven, atmosphere and earth, respectively. The cient confusion arises among students in the consideration of the polytheistic pantheon of gods celebrated in the Vedas included ancient and medieval periods without some treatment of more recent heavenly deities, atmospheric deities, and earthly deities. times, including the twentieth century. The Late Vedic or Upanishadic Period (800–400 BCE). Philosophical The common omission of figures important to the study of mod- and metaphysical texts dominated this period. The issues of world ern Hinduism is lamentable for two reasons. First, an over-emphasis renunciation and liberation (moksa. ) took precedence over the on the ancient Hindu past at the expense of the modern period tends worldly concerns of the Vedic sacrificial religion. The monistic to conceal historical innovations. This can lead students to conclude principle of a unified deity (Brahman), which is identical with the that Hinduism is a static religion that has not changed since ancient individual self (Ātman), superseded the earlier polytheistic model. times. Second, it is precisely the modern period that many students Attaining liberation from the bondage of karma and worldly en- find most interesting. trapment (samsāra) through mystical knowledge became the goal If one pays too little attention to the modern period, one runs the of religious practice. risk of denying students the opportunity to make fruitful connections The Epic and Classical Periods (400 BCE–600 CE). As the Indo- between modern Hinduism and alternative trajectories of modernity in Aryans consolidated power along the Gangetic plain and settled into other socio-historical contexts. Many of the issues with which students towns and cities, they composed the great epic poems of The Ma- wrestle in other disciplines—gender, race, class, colonialism, national- habharata and The Ramayana. The epics told the stories of political ism, science and religion, religious conflict, pluralism, death-of-god rivalries and regal heroes in the construction of the great imperial philosophy—are especially germane to the study of modern Hinduism. kingdoms of northern India. The idea of a religious life rooted in ad- This makes the study of the period an especially valuable component herence to the duties (dharma) of social class (varna. ) and life stage of an integrated liberal arts education. (āśrama) developed as an alternative path to the renunciatory tradi- An investigation of the modern period can make Hinduism come tions of the Upanishads. The Bhagavad-Gita emerged from The Ma- alive for those who might otherwise see it as a subject disconnected habharata as a particularly compelling synthesis of religious elements from the rest of their humanistic education. Even though the Vedas, circulating around the time of the birth of Jesus. Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita are universally recognized as world The Medieval Period (600–1800 CE). This period witnessed the me- masterpieces, the study of Hinduism transcends the study of traditional teoric rise in the popularity of personified deities such as the four texts. Hinduism has a vibrant modern life, and its study is relevant to armed Vis.nu. (Vishnu) reclining on the serpent of time in an ocean a wide range of contemporary concerns. of chaos, the elephant-headed Ganeśa with his potbelly and broken tusk, and the Goddess in her alternately ferocious and loving forms. wHEN DIDTHE MODERN PERIOD BEgIN? New devotional poems in Sanskrit and vernacular languages, along Before any serious consideration of Hindu modernity can be under- with tantric literature, developed at the same time that Hindu philo- taken, the question of temporal definition must be addressed. Ap- sophical thought was systematized into the six traditional schools. proaching the modern period of Hinduism is complicated by the fact The tenor of the period was shaped by the arrival and influence of that debates among specialists on exactly when time periods in the de- Islam, particularly from the thirteenth century onward. velopment of Hinduism begin and end make the historical waters The Modern Period (1800 to the Present). The modern period has murky. Nevertheless, the following general schema is widely accepted: been characterized by increasing exposure to—and engagement The Indus Valley Period (2500–1500 BCE). Although there are clear with—“the West,”first in the form of British colonization and then by discontinuities between the Indus Valley Civilization and the later the rise of Hinduism as a major world religion. The early phase of

42 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 15, Number 2 Fall 2010 Teaching About Asian Religions

The event that had the greatest impact on the self-understanding of Hindus in recent times was the arrival of the first vernacular missionary press to the Baptist Mission in Serampore, on the outskirts of Calcutta, in 1800.

Soon after 1800, vernacular and English-language presses began to proliferate exponentially in India. The coming of the press inaugurated a period of socio-religious reform, revival, and renewal the likes of which had never been seen in the his- tory of Hinduism. So profound were the religious changes that Photo of the Baptist Mission Press c. 1975 by Bernard Ellis. swept across India in the nineteenth century that the period is Image source: The Baptist Mission Press Web site at http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/baptmisspress/bmp-bernardellis.jpg. commonly referred to as the “Hindu Renaissance.” A short time after the introduction of the printing press to Bengal, a modern development in the nineteenth century was defined by the Hindu intelligentsia emerged to create and populate new schools and reform and revival movements of the “Hindu Renaissance” that were colleges. The rise of print culture in nineteenth century India accom- prompted and/or enabled by British political and economic domi- panied the rapid expansion of literacy rates and the development of nance in India. The later phase of modern development, from the voluntary societies, debating clubs, and salons. The proliferation of second half of the twentieth century onward, has been distinguished newspapers, periodicals, and novels fostered active civic engagement. by the international exchange of ideas, practices, and people. Hindus began to organize publicly in order to take control of repre- The event that had the greatest impact on the self-understand- sentations of Hinduism. Through the use of the press and voluntary ing of Hindus in recent times was the arrival of the first vernacular organizations, Hinduism became part of the modern public sphere. In missionary press to the Baptist Mission in Serampore, on the out- the process, the power to define Hinduism shifted from traditional re- skirts of Calcutta, in 1800. Although a handful of functioning ligious specialists to the modernizing intellectuals who were most con- presses had existed in India before this date (first in the hands of the versant with the new colonial idioms of the Enlightenment. Portuguese and then the British), it was not until the establishment Colonialism, Westernization, Protestantization, and moderniza- of the Serampore press that the culturally transformative potential tion came to India in a bundle at the turn of the nineteenth century. of the vernacular press and print capitalism was truly recognized. Hindu responses to the challenges and opportunities posed and enabled by modernity roughly approximated parallel reactions to nine- wHAT’S SO“MODERN”ABOUT MODERN HINDUISM ANYwAY? teenth century modernism in Europe and America. Reactions can be The modernity of the type of Hinduism that began in the early nine- plotted along a continuum from liberal accommodation to funda- teenth century, with the coming of the printing press, can be considered mentalist rejection. Just as the nineteenth century witnessed the emer- in at least two ways. On the one hand, the term “modern” in the couplet gence of both liberal and conservative theological responses to the modern Hinduism refers to all of those thinkers, institutions, ideas, be- challenges of modernist rationality, scientific enquiry, and technolog- haviors, and practices that manifested after 1800. On the other hand, the ical innovation in the United States and Western Europe, so too in India term can be used adjectivally to refer, not simply to the recent past (im- did the period of colonial rule see the rise of both reformist and re- plied by such phrases as “modern times”) but rather to a particular way vivalist camps of Hinduism. The post-1800 period witnessed the emer- of engaging and experiencing the world. This historically peculiar man- gence of a particular set of concerns and practices that came to define ner of experiencing and engaging was characterized in India (as else- Hindu modernity. They were/are (among others): where) by the self-conscious deployment of European Enlightenment I The use of modern technologies (the printing press, books, —reason and rationality—to rethink, reshape, reform, and revitalize novels, periodicals, newspapers) and institutions (colleges, time-honored traditions and institutions in India. the courts, voluntary societies) to discipline, define, and The printing press was the technological innovation that propelled promote religion in the public sphere; the modernizing Hindu movements during this period. The impor- I The development of religiously grounded responses (tra- tant Serampore press of Bengal was run by Baptist missionaries. ditional and reformist) to the vexed questions of caste and William Carey, Joshua Marshman, and William Ward printed works gender inequalities within Hinduism; in English and vernacular languages. The initial impetus for printing I A critical engagement with the uses to which science and was to promote the habit of reading among Hindus and Muslims in Enlightenment–rationality could be put in the construc- India so that they might one day be led to embrace the Bible and West- tion of religious identity—particular attention was paid to ern civilization. However, the missionaries could not have predicted critiques of “idolatry” and “superstition” in this regard; the side effects that would emerge as a result of the incipient print cul- I The partial transfer of traditional religious authority from ture that they initiated. gurus and ritual practices to “texts”—engagement with

43 Teaching About Asian Religions

The first major thinker to attempt to reconcile Hinduism with modern trends of thought and practice circulating in Europe, America and India in the nineteenth century was Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833).

Detail of a portrait of Ram Mohan Roy by Alul Bose. Image source: http://www.nvo.com/ghosh_research/pictures/view.nhtml?proﬁle=pictures&UID=10121.

Christian missionaries and the colonial education system and a temple priest. He had little acquaintance with or interest in books, caused many Hindu thinkers to embrace a scriptural un- publishing, voluntary societies, or rational argumentation. Whereas derstanding of religion in the modern period whereby sa- Roy favored a Deistic understanding of the Absolute without qualities cred texts and the attendant academic values of historical or active involvement in the world, Ramakrishna was devoted heart criticism, skepticism, rational argumentation, and the re- and soul to the severe personality of the multi-armed black mother ligious search for “origins” became all important in de- Goddess Kali, with her necklace of severed heads, lolling tongue, fending the legitimacy of Hinduism; bloody fangs, and wildly unkempt hair. Ramakrishna was known for I A concern with the place of Hinduism in a pluralistic reli- his lack of affectation. He was considered by many to be uncultured, gious world, along with attendant efforts to make Hin- uneducated, and unsophisticated, but it was precisely his rustic sim- duism a universal religion capable of national and plicity that endeared him to many Hindus in the latter half of the nine- transnational transplantation. teenth century. In fact, unlike Roy and several other modernizing The transformations of the modern Hindu period created a par- religious leaders during the colonial period whose movements never ticular mode of belief and practice that is recognizably distinct from gained traction in India, even though their ideas were revolutionary earlier forms of Hinduism that preceded it. and influential, Ramakrishna’s followers set up institutions—the Ra- makrishna Mission and the Vedanta Society—that continue to attract wHOwERE/ARETHE MAJORTHINkERS devotees and subscribers in the millions to this day. Ramakrishna's THATDEFINETHEMODERNPERIOD? mystical pluralism eased the oppressive weight of colonial reason that The first major thinker to attempt to reconcile Hinduism with modern modernity represented for many Hindus. trends of thought and practice circulating in Europe, America, and Ramakrishna’smost well known disciple was Swami Vivekananda India in the nineteenth century was Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833). (1863–1902). Vivekananda was the first successful Hindu missionary Roy has often been called the “father of modern India.” In his found- to bring a modern Hindu message to the West. At the World Parlia- ing of the Brahmo Samaj (Society of God), and through his many writ- ment of Religions in Chicago in 1893, Vivekananda addressed an in- ten works in a variety of languages, he set the stage for most of the ternational audience for the first time. By all accounts, his speeches reform movements that were to come after him. Roy rejected idolatry, made a tremendous impact on the body of the parliament and signif- fought against the practice of sati (self-immolation of widows on their icantly broadened the otherwise insular tone of the primarily Chris- husbands’ funeral pyres), lobbied on behalf of the rights of women in tian gathering. Vivekananda declared the deep unity of all the world’s legal affairs, argued for a monotheistic conception of God as exempli- religions and argued for mutual respect and tolerance in inter-religious fied in the ancient Upanishads, and developed a program of publish- dialogue. He chastised the West for trying to send religion to India, ing that rivaled anything Christian activists in the West or India could when what the country really needed was economic assistance. achieve. In his use of the press, as well as in his creation of a voluntary Vivekananda argued that the Europeans and Americans had gotten it society to propagate his message of a reformed Hinduism, Roy effec- wrong by thinking that India needed to be Christianized even while tively deployed the technologies and institutions of colonial modernity her material riches were being extracted and sent back to the West. In for creative indigenous purposes. His concern with hot button mod- his inaugural speech, he urged Americans and Europeans to begin ernist issues like equal rights for women, the eradication of “supersti- importing religion from India while exporting to India the material tion” from Hinduism, the criticism of high caste Brahmins, and his wealth and scientific understanding that the West had accumulated. push for a pluralistic understanding of God that could unite rather than Vivekananda saw this as the path to both India’s economic progress divide nations and peoples, all identified Ram Mohan Roy as a mod- and the West’s spiritual development. ern thinker influenced by the universalism of the Enlightenment. Most Vivekananda’s American appearance in 1893 marked a seismic importantly, Roy’s reverence for rational thought, logical argumenta- shift in inter-religious relations between India and the West. Many par- tion, and scientific modes of enquiry enabled him to cast a mold which ticipants in the Parliament agreed with the fundamental assertion that would form all modernizing Hindu thinkers who came after him. Christians had much to learn from Hindus. Soon after his initial pres- On the other end of the spectrum of Hindu responses to moder- entation, Vivekananda was asked to give additional talks in America. nity was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886). Ramakrishna He stayed on in the United States for a couple of years and established did not disagree with many of Ram Mohan Roy’smodernist ideas about the Vedanta Society in New York in 1895. Upon returning to India later reforms. However, he did represent in both his person and teachings a that year, he founded the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta. The mis- very different way of thinking about the proper Hindu attitude toward sion was a monastic institution designed to promote the general wel- the challenges of modernity. Unlike Roy, Ramakrishna was very tradi- fare of Hindus through the building and maintenance of colleges, tional in his beliefs and spiritual practices. He was a proud Brahmin preparatory schools, and hospitals. Vivekananda was committed to a

44 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 15, Number 2 Fall 2010 Teaching About Asian Religions

. . . whatever the political genius of gandhi, he also developed his own uniquely modern and very“Hindu” worldview.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Image source: http://www.speakbindas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mahatma-gandhi.jpg.

monistic view of the Absolute, and Hare Krishna Movement) came the emergence of an affluent middle- used the Vedanta Society and the Ra- class Indian diaspora. makrishna Mission to propagate a pluralistic form of Hinduism that In order to meet the needs of the Indian middle class diaspora in came to be known as Neo-Vedanta. Vivekananda’s unflinchingly na- the United States and around the globe, new forms of Hinduism have tionalistic affirmation of the spiritual superiority of India and his re-en- developed. These new forms of Hinduism are often traditionalist/re- visioning of Vedanta as a theoretical framework capable of vivalist in content but modernist/reformist in structure. As local groups encompassing the large diversity of newly interacting religions around in the United States and around the world build temples and create vol- the globe at the dawn of the twentieth century marked a significant untary associations for the perpetuation of traditional Hindu belief and milestone in the development of Hinduism as a transnational religion. practice within a diasporic context, they are drawn of necessity into di- Although he lived much longer than did his Bengali counterpart, alogue with the modernizing debates of the colonial period. The hard Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was a contemporary of work of the reformers and revivalists of the nineteenth and early twen- Vivekananda. Gandhi is most well known globally for his active politi- tieth centuries helped to forge new forms of universalist Hinduism that cal engagement in the nationalist struggle for Indian independence. In could be transplanted on multiple continents. The gurus who lead these his marrying of politics with religion, he was not alone among modern movements, along with their followers, move seamlessly to and from Hindu thinkers. As the modern religious period and the colonial polit- India facilitating flows of thought, patronage, and religio-political in- ical period arose together in India, the two areas of concern quite often fluence that would have seemed inconceivable just two generations ago. and naturally overlapped. Yet, whatever the political genius of Gandhi, he In so doing, they represent the culmination of a modernizing process also developed his own uniquely modern and very “Hindu” worldview. that began with the publication of a few Hindu books from the mis- Gandhi was born a Vais.nava. (a tradition of Hinduism) in Gujarat, sionary presses of Serampore in the early nineteenth century. India. He received his most profound spiritual sustenance from the The contemporary period of modern Hinduism has also seen at- Bhagavad-Gita. He read and traveled widely and was influenced by tempts to consolidate multiple regional and communal Hindu identities Jainism and Islam as well as Christianity. Gandhi’s core religious com- into singularized nationalist identities. Mention should be made of the mitment was to the equation of Truth (satya) with God. Although the existence of very powerful Hindu nationalist organizations that repre- linkage of truth, God, and the human soul was a metaphysical idea with sent unique responses to the challenges of modernity in the contempo- roots in texts like the ancient Bhagavad-Gita, Gandhi was able to fore- rary period, but this phenomenon constitutes a topic for another essay. ground the principle’s significance in a way that captured the modern imagination of the multitudes. His theology demanded a religious prac- CONCLUSIONS tice in line with the realization that truth and holiness are one in It is unfortunate that the modern Hindu period is often neglected in essence. Gandhi referred to his religious and practical movement as textbooks and courses dealing with Asian religions. The modern period satyāgraha (literally “holding to the Truth”). Through adherence to a has been a time of momentous import and profound innovation. An code of strict self-discipline, self-denial, communal sentiment, ethical examination of modern Hinduism reveals insights into the complex conduct, and the practice of non-violence (ahimsā. ), the modern Hindu interplay of religion, politics, society, economy, and culture that man- aspirant could be brought into contact with his essential divine nature. ifested in the wake of global modernity. One hopes that increasing at- According to Gandhi, those who lived a life of non-violence and truth tention will be paid to the modern period as India continues her could bring about quasi-magical changes in the world. In this way, movement to the center of the geo-political stage in the twenty-first the personal religious quest was seen as a precondition for effective century. I political change that flowed naturally from the spring of religious practice. FURTHER READING Contemporary movements have built effectively upon the re- Flood, Gavin. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. formism and revivalism of the colonial period and thinkers like Roy, Hay, Stephen, ed. 1988. Sources of Indian Tradition: Volume II, Modern India and Pak- Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and Gandhi. Although countless numbers istan, 2nd edition. New York: Columbia University Press. of traditional and modern Hindus continue to thrive in India, the most Sharma, Arvind. 2005. Modern Hindu Thought: An Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford noteworthy innovation in the post-WWII period has been the emer- University Press. gence of powerful international gurus and movements that have cre- Sharma, Arvind. 2002. Modern Hindu Thought: The Essential Texts. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ated and defined new forms of globalizing Hinduism(s). In 1965, the Smith, David. 2003. Hinduism and Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. US government promulgated the Immigration and Nationality Act that eliminated the “National Origins Formula” for immigration policy. After the passage of the act, immigration from India to the US became Jason D. Fuller is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at DePauw University in Indiana much easier. Along with the influx of gurus like the Maharishi Mahesh where he teaches South Asian religious traditions. His area of specialization is modern Yogi (TM—Transcendental Meditation movement), Shree Bhagwan Hinduism with a focus on Gaudīya. Vais.navism. . He is the author of numerous articles deal- Rajneesh (also known as Osho) and A.C. Bhaktivedanta (ISKCON— ing with Hindu modernity.